Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream’ Smashes World Record By Selling for $119 Million

A pastel version of Edvard Munch’s masterpiece ‘The Scream’ sold for $119.9 million at Sotheby’s in New York on Wednesday night, setting a new world record for an auctioned work of art.

The work was purchased by an anonymous buyer for $119,922,500. That tops the old record for auctioned art, set by Pablo Picasso’s ‘Nude, Green Leaves, and Bust,’ which sold for $106.5 million two years ago.

This version of ‘The Scream’ is one of four — two pastels and two oil paintings — created by the Norwegian expressionist Munch between 1893 and 1910. It’s the only version that can be owned by a private collector. The other three are housed in the National Gallery of Norway and at the Munch Museum in Oslo.

The work of art, which was appraised at a value between $80-$150 million, was sold by Norwegian businessman Petter Olsen, whose father knew the artist.